San Francisco cable car fare to jump to $18 by 2028

The ride from Powell and Market to the Wharf is set to get much pricier, turning San Francisco’s most iconic transit line into a sharper test of who pays to keep the city moving. Under a fare plan approved by the SFMTA board on April 22, a single cable car ride would rise from $9 to $12 starting January 4, 2027, if the Board of Supervisors confirms the budget, then climb again to $18 by early 2028.

The change is more than a price hike for tourists snapping photos from the top deck. It is one of the clearest signs of how deeply the city’s transit finances are under strain. SFMTA said the cable car overhaul is part of a balanced budget intended to help close a $307 million shortfall, as ridership remains at about 75 percent of pre-pandemic levels and outside aid is fading.

The agency is also scrapping the current single-ride cable car ticket and the tiered visitor passes. In their place, it will offer a Cable Car Plus pass. The one-day version would cover unlimited cable car and Muni rides, and the board asked that it work for one adult and up to two youths 18 or younger. That structure suggests the agency is trying to soften the blow for families even as it pushes more of the cost onto riders who want the city’s marquee transit experience.

The cable car system has long been both transit and symbol, a moving emblem of San Francisco’s identity as much as a way to get across town. It is also expensive to run. In 2019, the Cato Institute estimated that the cable cars cost about $70 million a year to operate while generating only about $24 million in revenue, a gap that has only become more urgent as the broader Muni budget tightens.

That leaves the city with a hard choice: ask riders and visitors to pay more, or find another way to protect a service that is as visible as it is costly. By pushing the fare toward $18, San Francisco is signaling that preserving one of its most famous attractions will not come cheap, and that the burden of keeping it rolling may increasingly fall on the people who use it.